55

I want to add SOCKS proxy settings to /etc/apt/apt.conf. What is the syntax for it? Is it same as http and ftp syntax?

Thanks.

Ubuntuser
  • 10,012

6 Answers6

84
Acquire::http::proxy "socks5h://server:port";

This works for me on Ubuntu 18.04. As the man page says, socks5h, not socks5, is supported by apt, which means socks5 proxy with DNS resolving ability.

Melebius
  • 11,750
苏永刚
  • 941
37

A possible solution can be to use tsocks, an application that can redirect the network traffic through a socks proxy. Install tsocks package, modify /etc/tsocks.conf to set address and port number of your socks proxy, and run:

$ sudo -s
# tsocks apt-get update
# tsocks apt-get dist-upgrade
# exit
$

or

$ sudo -s
# . tsocks -on
# apt-get update
# apt-get dist-upgrade
# . tsocks -off # not really necessary, given the exit
# exit
$

You can think to a number of options, to simplify and automate its use.
Don't forget the leading dot, the Manpage has more deatails on this.

Edit: a shorter way to use it:

$ sudo tsocks apt-get update
$ sudo tsocks apt-get dist-upgrade
Florian F
  • 105
enzotib
  • 96,093
14

Using the next config line works for me:

Acquire::socks::proxy "socks5://server:port";

To keep apt.conf clean and avoid problems at Linux upgrade I created a new file (/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/12proxy) and added the config file to it.

kos
  • 41,268
Bit-Man
  • 301
7

I couldn't find anything on Acquire::socks::proxy in the apt.conf manual of Ubuntu Xenial. You could fix this by running a local http proxy that supports upstream socks proxy, for example Polipo. You need to configure Polipo as follows:

proxyAddress = "::1"
proxyPort = 8118
socksParentProxy = "sockshost:socksport"
socksProxyType = socks5

and then set the http proxy in your apt.conf file:

Acquire::http::proxy "http://127.0.0.1:8118/";
Acquire::https::proxy "https://127.0.0.1:8118/";
Mos
  • 191
4

Or tou can put in your /etc/apt/apt.conf something like this:

Acquire::socks::proxy "socks://user:pass@host:port/";
mrkbbk
  • 89
3

In Debian, you can read the manpage apt-transport-http(1) and look for supported URI schemes. As was answered before, put

Acquire::http::proxy "socks5h://server:port";

in

/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/12proxy

You can read more about the APT-config in general in apt.conf(5) and read the examples in /usr/share/doc/apt/examples/configure-index.gz mentioned at the end of the manpage.

This can be combined with ssh -D <LOCAL PORT> <USER>@<HOST> to create a SOCKS proxy to a different system so that apt can then use the proxy as if everything originated on <HOST>.

If you use ssh -D 0.0.0.0:<LOCAL PORT> <USER>@<HOST> or ssh -D [::]:<LOCAL PORT> <USER>@<HOST> (for IPv6) to enable other systems to use the SOCKS proxy on all interfaces. This can be a security risk or breach of (corporate) policy. Make sure you know what you are doing.

AdamKalisz
  • 209